Tottenham have lost center back Micky van der Penn.
Van der Vaart ruptured his hamstring (back thigh muscle) while sprinting in the closing stages of the first half of the 2023-2024 English Premier League (EPL) match against Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, on July 7. He was stretchered off the field in excruciating pain.
He will be out for several weeks. The 22-year-old van der Penne has been at Tottenham this season for a fee of £43 million. 캡틴토토 도메인
He was hailed as the club’s “best signing” and started every game Tottenham played this season until the game against Chelsea.
Van der Penn’s injury has been controversial. “Concerns have been raised that van der Penn was exposed to injuries due to huge video assistant referee (VAR) delays,” the UK’s The Sun reported on August 8.
Van der Penn pulled his hamstring in a sudden burst of speed after a seven-minute stoppage due to VAR. The English Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) also weighed in on the controversy.
“Intuitively, I would say yes,” said PFA president Maheta Molango, “and as we saw on Monday, stoppages can lead to injuries because players have to sprint straight back after cooling down, so player welfare should be a big issue. But we are killing players now and that should be everyone’s biggest fear.”
“We want to talk about facts and figures and clear evidence rather than just feelings, and one of the ideas is to create a group of experts who can provide data to make sure we know for sure,” he added.
There was a long pause before van der Penn’s injury. Trailing 0-1, Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo equalized in the 27th minute. But after VAR, the goal was ruled out for offside.
It wasn’t the end of the story. VAR led to another offside call. A rough tackle by Cristian Romero was reviewed, and the referee sent Romero off and awarded a penalty kick.
Both processes took over five minutes, and it was another two minutes before Cole Palmer equalized from the penalty spot. Van der Penn was subsequently injured, according to The Sun.
Molango said: “We have to suffer for people’s decisions. I agree with coach Enze Postecoglou. What is the football we really want,” he asked, before emphasizing that “if what we are trying to achieve is an error-free game, we will fail.”